Microsoft released an updated version of its iTunes competitor today. The new Zune Marketplace adds TV downloads and a bunch of new music features. Here are some of the highlights:
The desktop application is integrated with the "Zune Community," allowing users to send messages and share their collections with friends
Ability to drag and drop a friend's Zune Card onto your portable media player
Gapless playback
Tools for editing meta data
But it's probably the new TV store that's going to steal the show. Microsoft says more than 800 episodes are availabe as of today, with titles including South Park, The Office, Heroes, 30 Rock, SpongeBob, Ghost in the Shell, Battletar Galactica, and Robot Chicken. Programs will cost you $2 per episode. There's no word on if and when we'll see movies on the Zune Marketplace.
Microsoft announced some updates to its Zune media player lineup this week, with new smaller, flash memory based Zunes coming soon. But we're much more excited about the software updates.
Microsoft has revamped both the Zune firmware and the Zune Desktop software. Perhaps the most impressive thing is that if you've got a current generation Zune, you'll be able to upgrade your firmware to get all the new features. Really, that's shouldn't be so impressive, but considering Apple wants you to buy a new iPod every year, it does kind of make the Zune slightly more attractive than it had been.
So what's new?
The Zune Marketplace is adding over a million DRM-free MP3 tracks. This from the company that practically (but not really) invented DRM.
Podcasts and music videos are being added to the Zune Marketplace
You no longer have to listen to shared music within three days. But you can still only listen to a shared track three times before it self-destructs.
You can share videos and photos with other users, not just music
Support for additional codecs including h.264 and MPEG-4
Automatically import recorded TV shows from Windows MEdia Center
Microsoft is launching a social network called Zune Social
Microsoft is launching web widgets called Zune Cards that let other users see your music selections
You can share music that someone else shared with you
While Apple is busy pushing out iPod updates that make your (admittedly hacked) devices less useful, Microsoft is actually releasing updates that make the Zune better. Suddenly that brown media player doesn't look so silly, does it? Oh, right, Microsoft is killing the brown version.
FairUse4WM strips DRM from Windows Media Audio files purchased online. The latest version can remove DRM protection from songs downloaded from Microsoft's Zune Marketplace, meaning you can play your legally purchased music on pretty much any device, not just Microsoft's Zune.
It's not clear whether the update comes from the same developer Microsoft was after or a new hacker. However, the new program was uploaded by a Doom9 Forum member named "Divine Tao," which is an anagram of Viodentia, the name the original hacker had gone by.
Not content to just follow Apple into the portable music market with the Zune, Microsoft appears poised to follow Apple into the DRM-free music market.
Music label has already agreed to sell unencrypted high quality digital audio files through Apple's iTunes Music Store. Zune marketing director Jason Reindorp told CNet that Microsoft plans to follow suit, offering DRM-free versions of EMI music.
There's no word on when the unencrypted tracks might hit Zune Marketplace, or how much they'll cost. Apple is charging a little more for unencrypted tracks, at $1.29 per track, compared with $.99 for AAC files with DRM.
What's a giant mega-corporation with a struggling digital download store to do to bring some zest into the venture? Why, hire one of the most prominent providers of business optimization software, of course! Forbes is reporting that Microsoft has hired Omniture to analyze and breath some life into the Zune Marketplace. From a Microsoft spokesman: "Omniture helps us understand what our customers care about, continually allowing us to improve the online experience and provide the best possible content and services."
One can only speculate as to what Omniture and Microsoft will cook up - so why not take a crack at it? To the Zune users, and specifically the Marketplace shoppers in the audience: put yourselves in Omniture's shoes. What would you change about the Zune Marketplace and experience?
Bloomberg reports that Microsoft is planning to add gaming to the Zune by 2008, to better compete with Apple's iPod, which already has games on-board. Zune must add games and continue to include more and better features than Apple to be ahead of the curve, instead of trailing behind. Nothing will come close to challenging the iPod for a while, since it is so far out in front, including the mind-share of the country that the iPod holds, but having played with the Zune a bit, I think it has a good chance to be a popular second place item. Microsoft execs also are contemplating a Zune phone, and possibly wi-fi video-sharing as well. Will Zune be a sleeping Lion, and eventually take some of the market-share from Apple? Do you have a Zune? Care to share your experiences with using it daily, how it works, what you like about it? Please, feel free.
Sure, there are plenty of ways to grab a video from YouTube, save it as an flv file, and convert it the file format of your choice. But Zunemytube's got to be the simplest method I've seen so far.
All you have to do is install the plugin for Internet Explorer and a little Zune icon will pop up in your toolbar. Then you surf YouTube, Google Video or MSN Soapbox and find videos you want to save. Once you've found a video, all you have to do is click the "Zune It" button in your toolbar and the program will automatically download and convert the video into a Zune-compatible windows media video file. The program creates individual folders for Google, YouTube, and Soapbox videos in your "My Videos" folder.
I have to say, the video quality leaves something to be desired when converting YouTube videos. This is probably because you're taking a highly compressed video and converting it to another compressed video format. I had a bit more luck with Google Videos.
The program only works with Internet Explorer, and I was only able to test it with IE7. Anyone try it with earlier versions?
How is this for traffic, Hitwise noted that Apple's iTunes hit a 413% increase in traffic over the 2006 holiday season over 2005's. This was mostly due to the ever increasing demand of the famous iPod, making this the third holiday season where the iPod has been at the top of everyone's most wanted list. The traffic doesn't stop there though, Hitwise also noted that iPod users helped in the 110% increase in traffic to the Apple Store to deck their iPod's out with new accessories. There is currently no word out about how many actual songs and videos were downloaded through iTunes over the holidays, or how many sad kids there were that received a Zune instead or an iPod in their stockings.
On another note, Zune was knocked down with a traffic ratio of 30 to 1 to the Apple iTunes store. Yes, the Zune was just released, so we might have to wait until the next holiday season for stats to see how things compare.
Information Week reports that Microsoft could be unnecessarily eliminating support for Windows 2000 and older systems from new software releases.
A number of new Microsoft programs, such as Office 2007 and the new Zune software won't install on Windows 2000 systems. While some programs are truly designed with newer operating systems in mind, it appears Microsoft has intentionally blocked some programs from running on older systems.
For example, Windows Defender won't install on Windows 2000 systems. But if you futz a bit with the installer program, it appears that Defender checks to see what version of Windows you're using. If you're not using XP or a newer operating system it won't install. But some users have reported that you can modify the installer, and Defender actually runs quite well on Windows 2000.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Microsoft no longer supports Windows 2000. The company only provides 5 years of support for most consumer software. But it's a step further to intentionally cripple software compatibility, presumably to convince users to upgrade their operating system every five years -- even if they're not experiencing any problems with their existing OS.
First off, let me state for the official record, that I am neither a Zune fan or Zune hater. I can't decide. I don't own one, and I don't know if I will in the future. I like a few of the ideas and features in the Zune, but it has its drawbacks as well. One thing I find funny is how the blogosphere has largely bashed the Zune, yet according to Gizmodo, Zune is 2nd in sales behind the iPod. Of course, second isn't where anyone wants be, but for goodness sake, Zune just launched in November, and the iPod has been king for a while, so for a product competing with the almighty iPod, it is pretty impressive that the sales could trump all the other players right out the door. Is Microsoft as least doing something right with the Zune, or is this a beginner's luck thing? Will Microsoft remain a contender or is this simply a holiday-infused debut flurry that will fizzle?
What's the first thing you want to know whenever a new device comes out? Whether you can play Doom on it, of course.
Okay, but the next question is usually whether you can install Linux.
Well, you can't really do either with the Microsoft Zune yet, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to upgrade (or downgrade) it by replacing the preinstalled software with some open-source firmware.
Rockbox is an open-source firmware replacement for MP3 players. Currently there are ports for a number of iRiver, Archos, and Apple iPod models. Work is underway to port Rockbox to the Toshiba Gigabeat F and X series. Microsoft's Zune is manufactured by Toshiba and has more in common with the Gigabeat S than the F or X series, but one of the main developers behind Rockbox says a Zune Port could be on the way. One of the main roadblocks would be the security features built into the Zune because of it's Wi-Fi capabilities.
Of course, installing Rockbox on a Zune would probably mean you couldn't play music purchased from the Zune Marketplace, and would definitely mean voiding your warranty. And odds are you wouldn't be able to share files with other Zune users via Wi-Fi (but who really does that anyway). On the other hand, this could be the first step towards using the Wi-Fi for something useful, like web browsing.
I wouldn't expect to see any major developments for a couple of months at least. The Toshiba porting is still underway, and as far as I can tell nobody's actively working on a Zune port just yet.
So Microsoft's Zune is out, but it's still a few steps behind the iPod in terms of battery life, ease of installation, and podcast support. Doug Arrison from FireAnt has gone one step further than Microsoft, and released a free program for syncing podcasts to a Zune. FeedYourZune is an RSS reader/aggregator for audio and video podcasts. It will automatically download podcasts and sync them. It doesn't include any file conversion at this point, so you'll need to download podcasts that are already in a Zune-compatible format. But Doug says file conversion will be included in a future release. You can also use FeedYourZune as a video player and playlist manager on your PC.
Oh yeah, and look, it features a Zune-like interface (read: black).
We've all heard rumors and news about Microsoft's coming website and music store to accompany the Zune when it arrives, and have no fear, Zune.net is here! The site up and offers info on the Zune device, and will be the place you can download the Zune software (the actual music store) come November 14th, a mere 10 days from now. The software app looks like it will be a stand-alone download and not be integrated with Microsoft's Windows Media Player, but will function more like iTunes does today. This is not confirmed, but is just what it looks like from the Zune.net site. Engadget has a nice run down of the actual player and some details on the Zune store software you might want to check out if haven't already. It seems that with all the many little things Microsoft has done and is doing to these new Devices and the store, they really are going after the iPod, big time. All the Microsofties will love the Zune, and I think even a few iPod die-hards will secretly like the Zune as well. Just a thought, we shall see when the Zune hits the fan, right? November 14th is coming.
The new Windows XP Zune theme is here, and it is hot. You might mentally compare this theme to Royale Noir, it does look a bit like it, but it's not. This theme is of course to commemorate the launch of Microsoft's alleged iPod-killer in a few weeks. Whether or not you like the Zune, this theme is cool for XP regardless, sporting a black-ish slate color and an orange start button. The background is pretty cool too. Any guesses as to where these folks are in the desktop background picture? What are they doing, and who is on stage? Of course, I think it is Ballmer doing to the can-can in a tuxedo. I could be wrong.
BusinessWeek is running a great interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The interview covers a ton of ground, beginning with Google's YouTube acquisition and ending with Vista. In between, Ballmer talks about the Web 2.0 valuations and "Bubble 2.0," the business transition from Xbox to Xbox 360, Microsoft's recent high-profile hires, Bill Gates' impending departure, Microsoft's competition, and, of course, the Zune. Vista is a disappointingly small part of the discussion, but it's still worth a read if you're interested in what Microsoft is up to.
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